Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development (AHEAD) is a World Bank funded Sri Lankan government operation to support the higher education sector.
Under the result area 3 of the AHEAD project, performance-based research programs for Development- Oriented Research (DOR) in universities are promoted through highly competitive research grants. STEM-HEMS (interdisciplinary) researchis given the highest funding through this approach.
A team of researchers headed by Dr.Thilini Agampodi, Prof Suneth Agampodi and Dr Nuwan Wickramasinghe from the department of Community Medicine, in collaboration with Dr RPIR Prasanna, Dr Jayasundara Bandara, Dr Bandula Jayathilaka and Dr MKL Irangani from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities received a STEM-HSMS DOR Research Grant in 2018 to investigate the complex sociocultural and economic impact of maternal outcomes. The grant proposal was based on Dr.Thilini Agampodi’s PhD work on Social Capital in Pregnancy. The project “ Generating Evidence for Ending Preventable Maternal Deaths (GEEPMD) was officially launched on 1stof January 2019. The project will facilitate high quality research work within the main structure of the project scope and numerous MPhil and PhD opportunities will be available for junior academic staff from different disciplines as well as for brilliant minds outside university system.